One important distinction of the '461 briefs over prior art garments is the front opening feature which is achieved by overlapping half width segments in a longitudinally extending zone and bonding the half segments together in the overlapped zone of the rear panel while leaving the overlapped zone of the front panel unbonded to thereby provide a front panel opening.
Briefs heretofore described in prior art (Class 2- garment) are normally made from textile fabrics, and being hand sewn or knitted as unitary items, are formed or assembled to have full width front and rear panels, continguous if knitted, or joined by sewn seams along side margins.
Textile garments can include front openings for male urinary functions, but with an expandable continuous elastic waistband rather than an openable panel.
The prior art in U.S. Class 128 for sanitary napkins and Class 604 for disposable diapers is replete with examples of the abovementioned improvements and features including the hourglass shape of U.S. Pat. No. 3,461,871 to Foote (1963) and 3,368,562 to Vogt (1968) and the important addition of leg elastics per U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,003 to Buell.
Thus, while substantial art exists for absorbent diaper features, there is scant teaching on incontinent pants or briefs with panels that can be opened for urinary functions, and with the front `fly` open, be easily dropped to the user's knees for excretory functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,733 describes a diaper with a front opening for use in toilet training or for use by incontinent adults wherin the absorbent padding layer (28) is located between the inner layer (19) and outer layer (24), and is held therein by secure attachment of the inner and outer layers 19 and 24 respectively--around their entire periphery.
The instant brief as well as briefs of '461 are not constructed with an absorbent pad/agent as part of the garment, but as briefs that can accept inserts like absorbent pads or feminine hygienic pads.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,695 to Cooper describes a combination diaper training pant with the typical hourglass shape, but it also includes absorbent material between the inner pervious sheet and the outer impervious material, again being limited to a product with an integral absorbent pad. Patent '695 shows a front opening in both the impervious panel and the inner pervious absorbent padding.
In the instant invention and the briefs of '461, a front opening is constructed by longitudinally overlapping half width webs with the advantage that one or both of the marginal edges can be enclosed with folded strips that define a `reinforcd` front `fly` without further processing of materials except along longitudinal lines until the product is assembled and ready for separation into discreet units, thus being well adapted for high speed fabrication.